Post #8: Something Totally YOU

This one is pretty open, but it’s really the most important type of post that you can write. It’s the one that’s filled with massive amounts of personality. It’s the one that lets your readers get to know you in a very real way. It’s the one that’s fun, exciting, or heart-wrenching. It’s the one that gets your readers to laugh, to cry, or to get very angry. It’s the post that demands a creative viewpoint. This is the post that places your topic in a new light.

Here’s some examples of bloggers having some fun and putting a creative spin on their topic:

Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants

Listening Party For Two: Louis Armstrong & Earl Hines

Take the opportunity to look at your topic through a totally new perspective. Give your readers value by offering advice, but do it in a fun and alternative way. The more creative the better, just give them something that turns their heads, puts a smile on their face, and makes them rethink your topic. Shoot for 500 words.

Finding More Traffic: Join A Blog Community

Blog Directories help bloggers find each other and help readers sort through the massive amounts of blogs online. Submitting your blog to several of these sites will help potential readers find your work. It also helps you network with other bloggers and find more sites that share common topics.

Some important things to remember about Blog Directories –

Don’t just submit your URL and leave, that’s quite spammy.

These are online communities, people like to communicate with one another.

This is a treasure trove of blogs – look through each directory and find the bloggers that share your common interest.

You can get a sense of who are the more active bloggers by seeing which blogs appear in all the directories.

Jump into the world of blog directories by following the steps below:

Create an account at the blog directories listed below

Fill Out Your Profile – MAKE SURE that your blog info is included (with the URL)

Search for blogs that share your common “niche”

Each site has a little different format, but “follow” or “add” these blogs to your favorites.

Comment on each common blog or leave a message for its author

REMEMBER! You are communicating with a human being don’t be spammy! Introduce yourself and start a conversation.

Some popular blog directories:

BLOGGED
Submit your blog HERE

BLOG CATALOG
Submit your blog HERE

BLOGVILLE
Submit your blog HERE

BEST OF THE WEB BLOGS
Submit your blog HERE

Check out THE FOLLOWING BLOG POST for more Blog Directories.

Post #7: News Post

Google your topic and find the latest happenings in your field. Make sure that your news topic is actually current (last couple of days) – old news is no news at all; most of your readers will already have heard the news. If there are several things happening in your niche currently, either pick the most exciting idea or report a number of ideas.

REMEMBER! The most interesting thing about blogging is your perspective. Don’t just copy and paste the news, write it up in your own words. Include a paragraph that talks about your opinion on the matter. Take a stand and make a statement about the issue. Take the time to think about this – people may comment and take the opposing view. Make sure that you can back up your opinion. If you just can’t come up with a position, then the news must not be that gripping – go back to Google and find something else.

Examples Of Good News Posts With Commentary:

How Carriers And Phone Makers Are Strangling Android And Google’s Plan To Save It

Sean “Diddy” Combs Unveils Wax Figure At Madame Tussauds

Now that you get the idea, write a post includes the following pieces:
• Summarize the news (don’t copy from another site)
• Include a link to your news source
• Write a piece that includes your take on the news
• 500 or more words

Find More Traffic: Submit Your Blog To Search Engines

LEAVE COMMENTS!
Start the day by commenting upon at least 3 blogs

Make sure that you return to at least one blog that you commented upon before, creating a return presence

Make sure that you find at least one new blog in your niche to leave a comment

SUBMIT YOUR BLOG TO SEARCH ENGINES
Search engines find results for their queries by sorting through their catalog of known websites. This means that you have to be listed in the search engine catalog before people can find your blog through a search engine. Search engines “find” your site by crawling through the web, and once they have found your site, they will make regular return visits to update their listings. It takes the search engines some time to find new sites, but why wait? You can speed up the process by submitting your blog to search engines, often resulting in more visits.

Check Out THIS BLOG POST That Gives You Some Guidance On Submitting Your Blog To Search Engines.

Make Sure That You Submit Your Blog To The Big 3 Search Engines:

GOOGLE

YAHOO

MICROSOFT LIVE SEARCH

You can find links to several smaller search engines on the blog post above – in addition to the “Big 3,” make sure that you submit your site to an additional 5 search engines.

Post #6: Link Posts

Many people think that you want to keep your readers on your site and not send them away to a “Competitor.” Not so – we’re all one big happy blogging family here. We should all help each other out!

Find a post on another blog that you think your readers will find useful and then add your thoughts on the topic.

A good link post will:
• Provide a brief summary of the original author’s point
• A link to the post
• Some original thought around the post that does one of the following things:
• Illustrates the point with original examples
• Expands upon the topic
• Offers an opposing point of view

Sometimes a hot topic moves through the blogosphere, allowing you to create a post that summarizes several peoples’ points. This can make for more interesting posts, just make sure that add to the conversation.

You can also create a list of links – just make sure that they all correlate to each other.

DO NOT BY ANY MEANS JUST COPY AND PASTE TEXT FROM ANOTHER BLOG ONTO YOUR SITE! The link and reference to the other site is useful to your readers (you’re keeping them informed), but the most important thing here is YOUR opinion on the matter.

Why are we linking out to other blogs?
• You are doing your readers a favor by keeping them informed of the latest news in your field.
• When the other bloggers sees the link to their site, they are most likely going to check out your site
• Many times, bloggers will return the favor and link back to you, sending their readers to your site.

Find More Traffic: E-Mail Another Blogger

Find another blog that caters to the same audience as yours. Go to the “About” page and find the info on the blog’s author. Most likely they will have contact information including an e-mail address.

Compose a message, keeping the following things in mind:
ADDRESS THEM BY NAME. There’s a human being on the other side of that blog!
READ THEIR BLOG BEFORE YOU E-MAIL THEM. Don’t e-mail blind. Know a little something about the blog so you sound informed instead of opportunistic.
LET THEM KNOW A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF. Let them know that you are just starting out blogging and your background in the topic.
BE BRIEF. Most established bloggers get a lot of e-mail and don’t necessarily have time to read extensive messages.
AT THIS POINT, DON’T ASK FOR A LINK TO A BLOG POST. You’re building a relationship here, let the blogger get to know you before you ask for a favor

Let me check out your message before you send it. Do this with at least two bloggers in your field.

Post #5 – Review Posts

Today’s post will be a review of a particular product, place, or event in your niche. These are popular and helpful posts – they allow your readers to rely upon your expertise while making decisions about their purchases. You’ll find posts like this all over the blogosphere – they are generally very popular.

Some qualities of a good review post:

Be specific – Talk about specific features or qualities of the item, place, or event that you are reviewing. Feel free to use “insider” language; you’re talking directly to your readers, a group of people passionate about your topic.

Display expertise – Make sure that you’re writing about something that you’ve actually spent some time using. Making guesses about a product isn’t helpful to your readers, they can do that themselves. Write about something that you’ve experienced extensively and describe that experience.

Go in-depth – There’s enough publicity speak around any existing product or service, and it’s generally vaguely positive. You’re an expert of the subject, so you can dig deeper than that. If you’re reviewing an album, talk about every track. If you’re reading a book, take it chapter by chapter. If you’re talking about a movie, take it scene by scene.

Be honest but tasteful – If you don’t like the product, and then make sure that you let people know about that. There’s a good chance that they’ll share your opinion. Don’t rant about the product senselessly though. Certainly give reasons for your negative opinions and prepare to defend them. On the other side, if you like the product, say that too. Don’t over glorify it though, just give the honest facts.

Don’t be dry – The more interesting you can make your topic, the better. Try opening with some sort of thought-provoking statement around your product. Explain that statement a little bit and then go into your review. At that point, the facts of your review can back up your initial statement. It’s not a piece or creative writing, but it can at least be interesting.

Start by choosing your product and then doing a Google for it. If there are too many existing reviews (5 or more), take one of two strategies:

Find something completely different that you can say about the product and go for it

Find a different product to review

Your review should be 500 – 700 words.

Here are some examples of review posts:

Comic Book Review – Chew, Vol. 1

Book Review: How Beautiful The Ordinary, 12 Stories Of Identity

iPhone App Review: Flight Before Christmas

CD Review: Esta Plena, Miguel Zenon

Refining Your Blog

TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT YOUR NAME!
If your name is “myusername’s blog” – it’s time to change it. Make your blog name something descriptive and catchy – it should tell your reader exactly what your blog is all about in a brief amount of words.

Some great blog titles from previous classes:
• Make Your Own Smoothies
• Flour Power: Cooking Tips
• Ride The Earth
• Baby Bites: Easy Cooking
• Baking For The Non-Gifted

YOUR BLOG IS MORE THAN JUST ANOTHER WORDPRESS BLOG
Change the sub-heading . . . please. The Just Another WordPress Blog sub-title should disappear and your should think of a great catch phrase. It should express a benefit to your reader in just a few words – what will your readers get out of your blog?

FILL OUT YOUR BLOGROLL
Start with your classmates – look for blogs that are related to your topic in our class. You can find all the links on the http://boazatdrake.wordpress.com/ site. Then add a few other blogs that focus on your topic that you like

Go to your dashboard
• On the left side of your dashboard, there is a button titled “Links”
• Click “Add New”
• Enter the URL, the Blog Title, and in categories, make sure that you check “blogroll”

Once you have added your links:
• Go back to the “Links” button
• Click “Edit”
• Delete The WordPress.com & the WordPress.org links

Check Your Site to make sure that your blogroll is happening

LEAVE COMMENTS
Find other blogs in our class and leave comments on at least 2 blogs. Preferably these blogs will be related to your topic. DON’T LEAVE JOKE COMMENTS JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE YOUR FRIENDS. This is not social networking, it is a public display of you as a blog author – other people can read your comments. Say something substantial that adds to the conversation.

Blog Post #4: Profile Post

Today’s post will focus on a particular person, place, or event related to your field. This post gives a outline and provides information for your readers.

Here’s some more information about your profile post:
Profile posts are similar to case studies but focus in on a particular person. Pick an interesting personality in your niche and do a little research on them to present to your readers. Point out how they’ve reached the position they are in and write about the characteristics that they have that others in your niche might like to develop to be successful.

This description outlines a profile of a person, but it applies just as aptly to a place. Here’s some examples –
• If your subject is mountain biking, perhaps you could outline the characteristics of a particular course, explain why bikers like to race there, and highlight the special features that make that course unique.
     o If this is your subject, you could also talk about a particular mountain biker!
• If your subject is food, you could discuss a restaurant that specializes in a particular food or drink. Talk about the atmosphere, the varieties of food, and the location.
     o If this is your subject, you could also talk about a chef!
• If your topic is video games, you could focus on a particular “world” or level, discussing the challenges, the landscape, or the chanracters involved.
     o If this is your subject, you could also talk about a specific character!

Make sure that you differentiate – this is not a review (that’s another type of post)! Save your critique for later, this is a fairly impartial look at the person or place. Let your readers make up their own mind.

After you choose your topic, take some time to do some research. You should be able to provide some detailed desciptions to your readers, and chances are that you don’t know everything about your topic. Get the info and then put it into your own words – plagurism is a BIG DEAL in the blogosphere.

You post should be 500 – 700 words.

Here’s some examples of great profile posts:

A profile of blogger Gary Vaynerchuk

A profile of pianist Al Haig

A profile of the Nikon d5000 swivel screen dslr camera

A profile of Latin Jazz vibraphonist Cal Tjader

Find More Traffic: Comment On Other People’s Blogs!

Think back to your first blogging assignment, “Blogging, Part 1” – at that point, I asked you to find two sites on your niche topic. Go back to those sites and look for two things – forums or the ability to comment upon a post. If you can’t do either of those things on these two sites, look for some other sites.

Once you’ve got at least 3 sites with an interactive ability, its time to start making your point.

On sites with forums: Create an account on the site and find the path to edit your forum signature. In your signature you want to include your name, your blog’s name, and a link to your blog. Find a thread that you’ve got an interest in and make a comment.

On blogs with the ability to comment: Find a blog post that interests you and make a comment about it. When you sign into the blog, you will be able to leave your name, URL, and sometimes site name – make sure that you fill in these areas with your blog’s info!

A few rules for leaving comments on blogs or forums –

BE USEFUL! Contribute something to the conversation that moves the point forward. This makes you look less like a spammer and more like an intelligent person that cares about their topic.

ONLY INCLUDE LINKS TO YOUR BLOG WITHIN THE COMMENT IF IT MOVES THE CONVERSATION FORWARD. You’ve already got a link to your site in your signature, you don’t need to put one in the comment just for the heck of it. If one of your posts illustrates your point in the comment, then by all means include a link.

DON’T BE PITHY. Avoid making comments like “good post” or “ I agree.” These comments don’t say anything useful and they look spammy.

Once you’ve made your comments, e-mail me links to the pages where you commented in order to get credit . . .